


My Crewmate's Pain

by sophisticus



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-28 12:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14449395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophisticus/pseuds/sophisticus
Summary: When Zoro offers his life to the Warlord Kuma in place of Luffy's life, Kitty is helpless to do anything but watch as her friend goes through unimaginable pain.





	My Crewmate's Pain

When Kitty came to, pain was the first thing she registered. Every bone in her body hurt, all the way to her core. When she tried to sit up from where she lay, she realized part of the pain was a massive weight on her back. When the Warlord Kuma had set off that cataclysmic explosion, everything had gone white and then black. Now, she realized it had also buried her – and possibly her companions – under piles of rubble. She pushed futilely at the slab of concrete that pinned her onto her stomach, but if anything it pressed down harder. The floating dust tickled her throat and drew ragged coughs from her, sending shards of agony through her torso. She definitely had at least one broken rib, possibly two.

Distantly, she heard voices, and she craned her neck to peer through the dusty air. There, through a crack in the rubble pile, she could make out a familiar figure: Zoro knelt in the dirt and ruin, head bowed, before Kuma himself. As his voice carried over to her, his words chilled her blood.

“If you’ve got to take someone’s head, take mine!”

“Zoro,” Kitty whispered. She coughed again and tasted blood. “Zoro!”

It was no use. She was too weak to shout, and she was helpless to do anything but watch as the massive Warlord tilted his head, considering the request.

“Luffy’s the man who’s going to be the king of the pirates,” the swordsman continued. “Take my head in his place.”

“Wait a minute, you damn bastard.” The speaker was out of Kitty’s range of vision, but she recognized the voice as Sanji’s. He sounded just as exhausted as Zoro, but as furious as she’d ever heard him. “What good is dying gonna do you? What about your own ambition, you idiot?”

Sanji finally came into view, and he looked completely ragged. His suit was torn and he was limping, but his back was ramrod straight as he moved between Zoro and Kuma.

“Hey, you monster,” he called to Kuma. “Instead of this idiot moss head, take my life instead!”

Trapped as she was, Kitty could do little but watch in dawning horror. If she were free, she’d of course be doing the same as both of them, and she of course wanted Zoro’s and Luffy’s life spared, but never at the cost of another of her dear friends. Not like this. Sanji kept talking, but she couldn’t hear most of his words over the pounding of her own heart. She struggled against the rubble with renewed vigor, but only succeeded in bloodying her hands against the harsh rock.

When Kitty looked back at the trio of men, Sanji had been knocked aside and Zoro was yelling something about the warriors doing the fighting. Even at this distance, she could tell he was shaking – from pain, exhaustion, or raw emotion, she couldn’t tell. It was possibly all three. Zoro turned back to face Kuma, who’d stood impassively this entire time, waiting for the spectacle to end.

“I’m begging you,” he said, almost too quietly for Kitty to hear.

The giant Kuma sighed. “If I kill Straw Hat now, I’ll only bring shame upon myself,” he said, in that deceptively gentle voice of his.

“I’m in your debt.”

Both Kitty and Zoro watched anxiously as the Warlord turned to Luffy’s prone form, whom she just realized was there. “I will not harm him, I am a man of my word. In exchange…I will show you hell.” Kuma placed his entire massive hand over her captain’s chest. When he withdrew it, it seemed as if he was pulling a giant red-tinted bubble from the unconscious boy, shaped like a giant paw pad. After seeing what his last paw-shaped bubble had done to their surroundings, Kitty stared at it with dread as it grew and grew, until it was taller than even the Warlord himself.

“What I just pulled from his body was his pain and his fatigue. This is all of the damage that he accumulated in his battle with Moria,” Kuma explained. His face stayed completely neutral as he spoke. She couldn’t see Zoro’s expression, but she imagined he looked anything but cheerful. “If you want to take his place, take all of his pain and suffering onto yourself. As close to death as you already are, it will be nearly impossible for you to survive. In all likelihood, you will die. Have a small taste.”

The Warlord swatted at the bubble, separating a small fist-sized portion which floated lazily towards Zoro. Kitty held her breath as it reached him and sank into his chest.

Zoro went rigid as spasms racked his body. His muffled screams echoed across the rubble, and Kitty cried out at the agony in his voice. She sobbed, cursing her helpless state to hell and back, as the screaming kept going, and going, and going, tearing at her heart and soul…until finally, mercifully, Zoro’s body went limp, and he silently crumbled to the ground.

For a long moment, he didn’t move, and fear sank its icy dagger into her heart. When he finally moved, Kitty let out a relieved sob. Zoro rolled over onto his back, chest heaving with ragged breaths.

“Well?”

Kitty cursed everything from the giant man’s soft voice, to his warlord status, to his stupid bear ears hat. When Zoro spoke, his voice was strained beyond anything she’d heard from him yet. “Let me…choose the place.”

She watched in horror as the reality of what he was agreeing to started to sink in. “Zoro!” she called, choking on her own tears and the dust. “Zoro wait!”

Neither Kuma nor Zoro heard her, however, as the latter stood shakily, and the two disappeared out of her field of vision, followed by the giant red bubble. Wrenching sobs shook her as she strained against the rubble, smearing blood from her torn hands everywhere. The rock shifted slightly, allowing her to breathe more easily.

Her relief was short lived. In the distance, an unearthly howl echoed across the island, turning her blood to ice in her veins. Even as distorted as it was, she recognized Zoro’s voice. His screams frightened her as nothing else ever had, and she couldn’t get the size of the whole bubble out of her mind when compared with the tiny amount that had put him on the ground just a bit ago. Her clawing at the rock turned desperate, and she felt a nail tear free as slowly, agonizingly she pulled herself forward. The entire time, Zoro’s howls tore at her ears and her heart.

She’d nearly pulled herself free when silence fell, and her terrorized eyes turned in the direction she’d last heard him. With one last push, Kitty wrenched herself clear of the rubble pile. She immediately collapsed again, but she forced herself to rise to her feet. Sanji still lay unconscious, as did Luffy and several other people she could now see, but she forced herself to start walking, praying the whole time that her fears were unfounded.

It took much longer for her to reach the clearing than it should have, due to both her own injuries and the sheer destruction caused by Kuma’s attack. What hit her first was the smell of blood – so much of it. Too much. It was spattered on the rocks, the fallen trees, even as far as the far gravel beneath her shoes as she approached. In the middle of the bloodbath, drenched in it – dripping from it – stood Zoro, clothes shredded and his skin as pale as death itself, but somehow alive. What’s more, he was conscious, though he trembled as if ill and his gaze was unfocused and distant.

“Zoro?” Kitty’s voice was hoarse and weak, and she didn’t think he heard her at first. She reached out a shaking hand, but froze when his gaze cut to her. His stone cold expression didn’t so much as flicker. “Where did all of this blood come from?”

She stepped closer, and the iron tang of blood flooded her senses.

“You did it,” she whispered, equal parts awed and nauseated. “You took all that pain and survived. What _are_ you?”

Zoro didn’t answer, but his eyes stayed fixed on her face. He swayed dangerously; Kitty barely had time to lurch forward before his knees gave out beneath him. The two collapsed together on the ground in a sticky, bloody mess. He was limp in her arms, mercifully unconscious, but if anything that made the fear curdle in her stomach even worse.

“Help,” Kitty whispered. She held him closer in shaking arms, ignoring his blood soaking her clothes and the protestation of her broken ribs. “Help! Please! Someone help!” Her voice was thin, but she screamed until she tasted blood. Even when her voice cracked and gave out, she wailed until someone came running. Babbling voices surrounded her, familiar and strange, but still she clung to her deathly wounded friend, even when someone tried to pry her away. Then she was falling, falling, into the deep abyss of unconsciousness.


End file.
